Dan White – MFN’s Hero

Dan White has served on Maryland Family Network’s Board since 1997. He was our Board President from 2006 to 2009, during the time of the merger of Friends of the Family and the Maryland Committee for Children. He retired from Whiting-Turner in December 2016, and a room at the construction company’s office was dedicated to Dan. Here is what’s written on the plaque in the room.

Margaret Williams and Dan White

After serving in the US Naval Construction Forces (Seabees) in Vietnam, Dan White joined Whiting-Turner in September 1969 as a clerk/timekeeper on the Hampton Plaza project in Towson, Maryland. With no college degree yet, Dan’s only engineering/ construction experience had involved operating heavy equipment. But young Dan quickly made himself valuable, taking on more and more responsibility and showing great ability to get things done. Soon he was raising a family, working, and earning a civil engineering degree at Johns Hopkins University in the evening.

In the late 1970’s, Mr. Hackerman and Mr. Irish placed their confidence in Dan to tackle one of the company’s most important projects to date – Harborplace at Baltimore’s reinvigorated Inner Harbor. The project was a great success and would be the catalyst for decades of development on the Baltimore waterfront. Dan would go on to build numerous successful operating groups within Whiting-Turner that would delight countless customers including IBM, the United States Naval Academy, MBNA, and the Cleveland Clinic. He also pioneered the first Midwest office in Cleveland, Ohio. Along the way, we would get an engineering degree at Loyola University, again in the evening.

Dan’s contributions to Whiting-Turner go well beyond constructing projects and include growing future leaders of the company. His keen financial acumen has streamlined operations, modernized investment, and improved accounting and data management systems. Dan made Whiting-Turner more successful while better serving our clients and subcontractors and partners. Always a thoughtful, positive and uplifting influence in any conversation, Dan continues to provide sage advice to all who have the pleasure of interacting with him. His positive impact on Whiting-Turner will be felt for decades to come.

Maryland Family Network's mission is to ensure that young children and their families have the resources to learn and succeed.